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Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.
Hidden among hundreds of political stories, liberal and conservative commentaries, newspaper editorials and voter polls on the Real Clear Politics website is this buried headline, “Trump is on track to win reelection,” originally published on the op-ed page of none other than the far-left liberal Washington Post written by a long-time Democratic strategist.
Writer Doug Sosnik, who most people have never heard of, was a senior advisor to former President Bill Clinton from 1994 to 2000. In his opinion piece, Sosnik lays out his rationale as to why he thinks President Donald Trump very well may win reelection in 2020. His words should scare the hell out of liberal Democrats and Trump haters alike – but they won’t listen.
“More than half of Americans don’t think Donald Trump is fit to serve as president, yet he has a clear path to winning reelection. If Trump isn’t removed from office and doesn’t lead the country into some form of global catastrophe, he could secure a second term simply by maintaining his current level of support with his political base,” writes Sosnik. “Today, the central issue has become populism as voters have moved away from two political parties and increasingly self-identified as Independents.”
Sosnik is no Trump supporter, but he’s seeing the handwriting on the wall to predict the future without bias.
Nationwide voter registrations reveal that Democrats are at about 31-percent, Republicans are about 29-percent while Independents have soared ahead to 40-percent, according to Real Clear Politics and recent Gallup polling. What Sosnik is saying is true.
“The continued decline in support for both political parties works to Trump’s advantage. The lack of voters’ faith in both parties increases the probability that there will be a major third-party candidate on the 2020 ballot,” says Sosnik. “It will also lead to other minor-party candidates joining the presidential race. The multi-candidate field will further divide the anti-Trump vote, making it possible for him to get reelected simply by holding on to his current level of support.”
Of course, between now and the 2020 national election comes the mid-term elections next year in which all 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives are up for reelection plus 33 U.S. senators – 23 Democratic seats, two Independents and eight Republican seats.
Republicans are in firm control of the U.S. House, but on the U.S. Senate side – with 100 members, two from each state — it’s much closer with 52 Republicans, 46 Democrats and two Independents. Lately, the Democrats are united against anything President Trump proposes, so are the Independents. With an additional handful of Republicans siding with the Democrats, the president’s agenda is stalled.
Political upheaval in 2018 is all but assured as voters see the constant Democratic and Republican bickering in the U.S. Congress which is stalling President Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda. Voters see it’s not President Trump’s fault for failing to fix the healthcare system or reduce taxes.
What voters do see is the Dow Jones Stock Market at record highs since President Trump took office. People are going back to work, proven by the lowest unemployment rate in recent history. And retirement accounts are surging offering more security for senior citizens, who are an important voting block.
Despite what anyone says, elections are always about the economy. Failure to pass both President Trump’s health care plan and across-the-board tax cuts will most certainly affect the outcome of next year’s mid-terms, and should result in Republicans gaining better control of both chambers of the U.S. Congress so the president can continue with his plans to “Make America Great Again”
Because the stock market is charging ahead, there will be money available to national and state candidates for office like never before. Billions spent during the mid-terms will mostly end up in the hands of mainstream media and public relations firms who benefit from commercials and political rallies across the nation.
In 2016 and afterwards, President Trump took traditional political rallies to a whole new level and others will try to do the same thing.
Back in 1992, flamboyant James Carville, a campaign advisor to Bill Clinton’s 1992 successful Democratic presidential bid and current political commentator, coined a phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Why has this become so easy for Democrats to forget?
About the Author
Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.
Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.
